Hey all,
My father in law owns a 2014 Sprinter which he's converted to a camper van. This van came with a relatively simple Audio 20 head unit (basically a radio and cd player) . He recently purchased a wrecked 2015 sprinter for spare parts, which also has the superior Audio 15 head unit (SD card reader, Bluetooth, GPS, and ability to connect a reversing camera).
After completely striping the older Audio 20 (and the wiring loom) out of his van and transplanting the superior Audio 15 in, the radio throws an anti theft warning and refuses to start. He's spoken to the local dealer, and many repairers who have advised they don't know how to fix the issue. To me, it sounds like the radio is expecting a certain code from the CAN BUS but obviously it doesn't match once being moved to a new van so it throws an error.
Has anyone tackled an issue like this before or can point my father in law in the right direction to solving this? Ideally he'd like to retain the radio steering wheel controls but understands he may need to sacrifice those in order to get the advanced features of the audio15 working.

I don't know the answer and chances are nobody here will, but they may be able to make recommendations of where to take it. If you put your location it makes it a lot easier. I have ideas for Adelaide and Sydney people

That would be great if you could put that in your profile and then every time you ask a question we know where you are.... and saves this sort of typing! I thought this was now made mandatory for new members but obviously not.

Anyway, my first place to call would be Eric at Silver Star service and restoration 0411 749 639. My reason for suggesting Eric is that until relatively recently he left Mercedes Adelaide, where he had been for a very long time. So not only does he have experience on the older models but also has that more recent experience. Great guy and very clever - that's where i would start anyway.